


Shot In The Dark

by Glacial_guillotine



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: 1980's Party, Drugs, Good Friend Robin Buckley, Hurt/Comfort, I don't know what else to tag, Panic Attacks, Robin Buckley & Steve Harrington Friendship, Steve Harrington Whump, Whump, bad trip, don't do drugs kids, why is that all that I write lol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-30
Updated: 2019-11-30
Packaged: 2021-02-26 17:01:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,205
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21611770
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Glacial_guillotine/pseuds/Glacial_guillotine
Summary: "You... you remember the Russians and, and their drugs?" He laughs deliriously, a weird sound to Robins ears."I know. It was great, for a while there, but, it was a one time thing, you know?" She rubs his back. "Not something we repeat.""I'm... I'm not as bad as I look. I swear. I go to school, to work, I drive around, I swear I'm normal." She pulls back, and his eyes are empty. His words are void of emotion, and it scares her more than the tears.--Robin meets Steve at a party a few weeks after the incident. Something is wrong.Another Stranger Things Fic because I'm missing new content!
Relationships: Robin Buckley & Steve Harrington
Comments: 1
Kudos: 94





	Shot In The Dark

Robin is tilting.

Pink and green and neon yellow lights dance across her blurry vision, and she thinks it's wonderful.

She stumbles down a carpeted hallway and smiles bitterly at the couple that are kissing in the hall bathroom. She's just about ready to head back to Michelle Shannon's car when she hears something that makes her freeze.

Robin rounds a corner and grins sloppily at the figure lounging on the counter of the outdoor bar, staring out into the blue waters of the pool.

"Thought this wouldn't be your scene anymore, Harrington."

His eyes lazily swing over to her, and Robin thinks it takes a second or two for recognition to set in, but that might just be the few beers in her system talking.

Steve swings his legs over the side and sits up like Frankenstein's monster, almost slipping off the counter.

"Woah, hey, you okay there?" She laughs at how he stumbles forward, drink sloshing out of the side of the cup. At least it was full, she thought.

"I'm great! I'm great, I'm great...I didn't think you'd be at a college party, band nerd."

He swings his arm around the air to indicate the house they're outside of. It wasn't a sorority, or a frat, but it might as well have been.

He looked strange.

She tore her eyes away from the shirtless guy doing a flip off the patio, and met his face, nodding, "Actually, I was just about ready to get out of here. Michelle dragged me along, you know how she is."

Steve sort of knew. He'd definitely had heard her name before, but... Michelle wasn't a girlfriend, was she?

"Michelle... Michelle Goodall?" He scrubbed at his forehead to try and concentrate.

"No. You know Michelle Shannon, short, red hair, has this weird sense of personal space?"

A blank stare met Robin, and she snapped her fingers in front of him. "You met her at that senior camping thing?"

Steve just took another swig of...punch? Juice? Whatever concoction was in his solo plastic. From where Robin stood, the smell of his breath made her stomach turn.

She tried to catch his gaze, but he kept looking around as if he were trying to avoid her.

"Good there bud?" Robin thought it was one of the most interesting things that had happened that night, and that she might as well see to it that Steve got home alright.

"Two last names?" He mumbled, gaze wobbly and searching all around them.

"Huh?" She thought for a second as she took his arm. "Oh! Yeah. Michelle Shannon. Kind of weird, right?"

Soon they were inside, and the stench of alcohol got even stronger.

Robin pulled on Steve's arm to bring him closer to the couch, but there were already three people on it wrapped up in a blanket, fast asleep, so she figured that it wasn't the best place to deposit him anyway.

She turned to find him shakily setting down his cup.

The light from the kitchen hit his face, and suddenly, she can finally see why he looked so strange to her earlier.

His pupils were blown to hell, gentle browns hidden by inky, trembling black. They were unfocused and loopy and it scared her.

"Steve," she says slowly, "I need you to be very honest with me, okay? What did you take."

It wasn't a question of 'if he had taken anything'. It was void of their ever present, humorous banter, and was instead filled with a disillusioned urgency. It sent a shiver up her back, he didn't have the sharpness she so often associated with Steve, and it was all wrong. Viscerally wrong.

Steve gripped her forearm.

"Why's the.. room spinning?"

She curses, and frantically searches around the room for a free couch or an unoccupied corner.

Finding none, she hauls him into the nearest bathroom and sits him on the toilet.

"This isn't normal, Steve, you're freaking me out!" She presses her hands into his cheeks, hard, and his gaze just roll around her face aimlessly.

She stands from her kneeling position to find a towel to run under cold water. The towels are somewhere in the hall, in a closet... maybe hidden behind the...

There's a loud sound from the bathroom, and she realizes it was Steve, a cut off shout escaping mouth. She tumbled into the room, zeroing in on how his fingers raked down his shoulders. He had pressed himself into the corner between the bath and the counter and it looked like it hurt.

It was shocking, and she could barely process the tears, hot and angry, dripping down his flushed cheeks. It was only when he looked up at her, eyes hurt and terrified, did she spring to action.

"Shhh, Steve, talk to me." It was whispered, her voice cracking at the hushed tone.

"I, I can't get it out of my head." He was shaking, hands held tight by Robin's strong ones. "Everythin's too fast, and I can't do it again, I can't- I can't- I can't!"

He was manic. Bloodshot eyes looked right through her, and it was taking all of her strength to keep him on the floor. She didn't know how to handle this, it was a shot in the dark.

Tears splashed onto pale pink tiles and he broke, another harsh sob that sounded like it was pulled from the depths of his throat.

"Shit, Steve." She felt her own eyes start to burn, watching her friend fall apart on the bathroom floor of some house party was, in a word, heartbreaking.

He had his head in his hands, tugging at his curls. "Not again, please not again." Steve whimpered, _whimpered_ , and she swore her heart broke in two.

He started pulling against his hair, shaking and falling deeper and deeper into the trip. Robin sprung up and wrapped her arms around him, holding his arms to her chest, and could feel how his hands trembled with fear. She held him tight, little words of comfort falling from her lips on instinct.

"No, no, no, I can't be here, I can't I- I need to go!" He sobbed, weakly struggling against her hold. "I need to-"

"Shhhh," Robin felt something wet roll down her cheek. "Shhh, Steve, you're with me. We're okay. We're okay."

He went limp, pushing his head into her shoulder and crying, little gasps of pain and utter hurt echoing in the pink tiled bathroom.

-

"You... you remember the Russians and, and their drugs?" He laughs deliriously, a weird sound to Robins ears.

"I know. It was great, for a while there, but, it was a one time thing, you know?" She rubs his back. "Not something we repeat."

"I'm... I'm not as bad as I look. I swear. I go to school, to work, I drive around, I swear I'm normal." She pulls back, and his eyes are empty. His words are void of emotion, and it scares her more than the tears.

"Do you want some water?" She wipes at her cheeks and shakes her hair out. He nods, and she closes the door quietly, and leans against the wall outside, wondering how this could have happened to them.


End file.
